"I am Mrs. Gardiner"s paid companion," responded Bernardine, huskily.
"And I am Mrs. Gardiner"s guest, surprising as that may seem. But let us step into some quiet nook where we can seat ourselves and talk without interruption," said Miss Rogers. "I have much to ask you about, and much to tell you."
"Will you come to my apartment?" asked Bernardine.
The little old lady nodded, the action of her head setting all her jewels to dancing like points of flame.
Bernardine led the way to the modestly furnished room almost opposite Mrs. Gardiner"s, and drawing forward a chair for her companion, placed her in it with the same gentle kindness she had exhibited toward poor, old, friendless Miss Rogers in those other days.
"Before I say anything, my dear," began Miss Rogers, "I want to know just what took place from the moment you fled from your father"s humble home up to the present time. Did you--elope with any one?"
She saw the girl"s fair face flush, then grow pale; but the dark, true, earnest eyes of Bernardine did not fall beneath her searching gaze.
"I am grieved that you wrong me to that extent, Miss Rogers," she answered, slowly. "No, I did not elope. I simply left the old tenement house because I could not bear my father"s entreaties to hurry up the approaching marriage between the man I hated--Jasper Wilde--and myself.
The more I thought of it, the more repugnant it became to me.
"I made my way down to the river. I did not heed how cold and dark it was. I--I took one leap, crying out to G.o.d to be merciful to me, and then the dark waters, with the awful chill of death upon them, closed over me, and I went down--down--and I knew no more.
"But Heaven did not intend that I should die then. I still had more misery to go through; for that was I saved. I was rescued half drowned--almost lifeless--and taken to an old nurse"s home, where I lay two weeks hovering between life and death.
"On the very day I regained consciousness, I learned about the terrible fire that had wiped out the tenement home which I had known since my earliest childhood, and that my poor, hapless father had perished in the flames.
"I did my best to discover your whereabouts, Miss Rogers, at first fearing you had shared my poor father"s fate; but this fear proved to be without foundation, for the neighbors remembered seeing you go out to mail a letter a short time before the fire broke out.
"I felt that some day we should meet again, but I never dreamed that it would be like this."
"Have you told me _all_, Bernardine?" asked Miss Rogers, slowly. "You are greatly changed, child. When you fled from your home, you were but a school-girl, _now_ you are a woman. What has wrought so great a change in so short a time?"
"I can not tell you that, Miss Rogers," answered Bernardine, falteringly. "That is a secret I must keep carefully locked up in my breast until the day I die!" she said, piteously.
"I am sorry you will not intrust your secret to me," replied Miss Rogers. "You shall never have reason to repent of any faith you place in me."
"There are some things that are better left untold," sobbed Bernardine.
"Some wounds where the cruel weapons that made them have not yet been removed. This is one of them."
"Is love, the sweetest boon e"er given to women, and yet the bitterest woe to many, the rock on which you wrecked your life, child? Tell me that much."
"Yes," sobbed Bernardine. "I loved, and was--cruelly--deceived!"
"Oh, do not tell me that!" cried Miss Rogers. "I can not bear it. Oh, Heaven! that you, so sweet, and pure, and innocent, should fall a victim to a man"s wiles! Oh, tell me, Bernardine, that I have not heard aright!"
Miss Rogers was so overcome by Bernardine"s story, that she could not refrain from burying her face in her hands and bursting into tears as the girl"s last words fell on her startled ear.
CHAPTER LII.
Tears were falling from Bernardine"s eyes and sobs were trembling on the tender lips, she could restrain her feelings no longer, and, catching up the thin, shriveled-up figure of the dear little old spinster in her arms, she strained her to her heart and wept.
"Ah, my dear girl. _You_ are the good angel who took me in and cared for me, believing me to be a pauper.
"And now know the truth, my darling Bernardine. I, your distant kinswoman, am very rich, far above your imagination. I have searched for you since that fire, to make you my _heiress_--heiress to three millions of money. Can you realize it?"
Bernardine was looking at her with startled eyes, her white lips parted in dismay.
"Now you can understand better why I am here as the guest of Margaret Gardiner and her proud mother? The wealthy Miss Rogers, of New York, is believed to be a valuable acquisition to any social gathering. I loved your mother, my fair, sweet, gentle cousin. I should love you for her sake, did I not love you for your own."
"You will make the necessary arrangements to leave Mrs. Gardiner"s employ at the earliest moment, my dear, for I wish you to take your place in society at once as my heiress."
But much to Miss Rogers" surprise, Bernardine shook her head sadly.
"Oh, do not be angry with me, dear Miss Rogers," she sobbed, "but it can never be. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind intentions, but it can never be. Heaven did not wish me to be a favorite of fortune. There are those who are born to work for a living. I am one of them. I have no place in the homes of aristocrats. One fell in love with me, but he soon tired of me and deserted me."
"He will be glad enough to seek you again when you are known as my heiress," declared Miss Rogers, patting softly the bowed, dark curly head.
"No, no!" cried Bernardine; "if a man can not love you when you are poor, friendless and homeless, he can not love you with all the trappings of wealth about you. I say again, I thank you with all my heart and soul for what you are disposed to do for me; but I can not accept it at your hands, dear friend. Build churches, schools for little ones, homes for the aged and helpless, inst.i.tutions for the blind, hospitals for those stricken low by the dread rod of disease. I am young and strong. I can earn my bread for many a long year yet. Work is the only panacea to keep me from thinking, thinking, thinking."
"Nay, nay," replied Miss Rogers; "let me be a judge of that. I know best, my dear. It will be a happiness to me in my declining years to have you do as I desire. The money will all go to you, and at the last you may divide it as you see fit. Do not refuse me, my child. I have set my heart upon seeing you the center of an admiring throng, to see you robed in shining satin and magnificent diamonds. I will not say more upon the subject just now; we will discuss it--to-morrow. I shall go down and join the feasters and revelers; my heart is happy now that I have found you, Bernardine. Early to-morrow morning we will let Mrs.
Gardiner and her daughter Margaret into our secret, and they will make no objection to my taking you quietly away with me--at once. Do not let what I have told you keep you awake to-night, child. I should feel sorry to see you look pale and haggard to-morrow, instead of bright and cheerful."
With a kiss, she left Bernardine, and the girl stood looking after her long afterward, wondering if what she had just pa.s.sed through was not a dream from which she would awaken presently.
The air of the room seemed to stifle Bernardine. Rising slowly, she made her way through one of the long French windows out into the grounds, and took a path which led in the direction of the brook around which the alders grew so thickly.
She was so preoccupied with her own thoughts, she hardly noticed which way her footsteps tended. All she realized was, that she was walking in the sweet, rose-laden grounds, away--far away--from the revelers, with the free, cool, pure air of Heaven blowing across her heated, feverish brow.
"An heiress!" She said the words over and over again to herself, trying to picture to herself what the life of an heiress would be.
If she had been an heiress, living in a luxurious, beautiful home, would Jay Gardiner have deserted her in that cruel, bitterly cruel, heartless fashion?
She never remembered to have heard or read of the lover of a wealthy heiress deserting her. It was always the lovers of poor girls who dared play such tricks.
How shocked Jay Gardiner would be when he heard that she was--an heiress!
Would he regret the step he had taken? The very thought sent a strange chill through her heart.
The next instant she had recovered herself.
"No, no! There will be no regrets between us now," she sobbed, hiding her white face in her trembling hands. "For he is another"s and can never be anything more to me save a bitter-sweet memory. To-night I will give my pent-up grief full vent. Then I will bury it deep--deep out of the world"s sight, and no one shall ever know that my life has been wrecked over--what might have been."
Slowly her trembling hands dropped from her face, and, with bowed head, Bernardine went slowly down the path, out of the sound of the dance-music and the laughing voices, down to where the crickets were chirping amid the long gra.s.ses, and the wind was moaning among the tall pines and the thick alders.
When she reached the brook she paused. It was very deep at this point--nearly ten feet, she had heard Miss Margaret say--and the bottom was covered with sharp, jagged rocks. That was what caused the hoa.r.s.e, deep murmur as the swift-flowing water struck them in its hurried flight toward the sea.
Bernardine leaned heavily against one of the tall pines, and gave vent to her grief.
Why had G.o.d destined one young girl to have youth, beauty, wealth, and love, while the other had known only life"s hardships? Miss Rogers"